CBN Covers Up Pat Robertson's Claim That Gays Spread AIDS on Purpose

Note to Pat Robertson: When your batshit crazy ravings have gotten too batshit crazy for your very own television network, it may be time to dial down the batshit.

The infamous televangelist troll, who's made some seriously unforgivable statements in the past, outdid himself today when he claimed gay community members are intentionally infecting heterosexual people with AIDS by cutting their fingers during handshakes using a special AIDS ring.

These were his exact words to co-host Terry Meeuwsen, made during today's episode of the 700 Club:

You know what they do in San Francisco, some in the gay community there they want to get people so if they got [AIDS] they’ll have a ring, you shake hands, and the ring’s got a little thing where you cut your finger. Really. It’s that kind of vicious stuff, which would be the equivalent of murder.

Even Jesus himself couldn't lift the sheer volume of holy-fuckery in that pronouncement — a fact that wasn't lost on the powers-that-be at the Christian Broadcasting Network, the TV network Robertson himself founded in 1961.

When the episode was uploaded online this afternoon, Robertson's comments had mysteriously disappeared.

This wasn't the first time CBN muzzled its figurehead — RightWingWatch notes that Robertson's not-so-tacit approval of spousal abuse was also censored — but maybe instead of waiting for the doddering bigot to say something even worse the network will finally put him on an ice floe and shove him off to sea.

UPDATE: Pat Robertson has released a classic non-apology regretting that his remarks "had been misunderstood," and blaming the misunderstanding on people who "do not listen to the context of remarks which are being said."

He also provided this additional bit of context:

In my own experience, our organization sponsored a meeting years ago in San Francisco where trained security officers warned me about shaking hands because, in those days, certain AIDS-infected activists were deliberately trying to infect people like me by virtue of rings which would cut fingers and transfer blood.